Arts-based environmental education (AEE) denotes an emerging field of pedagogy wherein facilitated art practice intersects with and informs learning about our natural and cultural environments. In it, artmaking is appreciated as a form of coming to knowledge, of making meaning, in its own right, on par with other approaches such as inquiry-based learning in the science classroom. In this article, the author, himself a practitioner, foregrounds two different orientations in learning about nature through art that he considers both as being expressive of AEE. The first one, here called “artful empiricism”, is more established and has its footings in “the Goethean approach”. Participants investigate natural phenomena through direct observation and experience of the world. This is then complemented by intuitive perception. Yet, for the most part, they are absorbed in what Dewey would call a receptive sense of “undergoing”. Aesthetic sensibility is foregrounded, encouraging participants to fine-tune their senses in order to perceive the phenomenon in nature with “fresh eyes”. The second orientation is hardly articulated as an epistemology yet. Here it is called “improvising with emerging properties” and it features an element of working with unforeseen properties that emerge in and through an artmaking process that thematises natural phenomena. It is intrinsically open-ended and an active “acting upon” the world takes centre stage. Through artmaking, participants explore the relationships between themselves and their environs. In his discussion, the author analyses these approaches as two modalities both expressive of a Deweyan cycle of alternating between a receptive undergoing of and active acting upon the world, in different phases of a reflective experience.
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Amidst evolving landscapes and contemporary pressures affecting both the arts and rural living, policymakers and artists alike are directing more attention to rural and non-urban cultural practices. Participatory art forms, such as music, offer a unique potential to (re)connect people with each other and their surroundings by fostering reflection and reshaping societal perspectives. However, developing or attempting to integrate existing and new practices into rural communities can pose challenges for artists, especially when coming from outside these locales. Moreover, there is a notable absence of clear and sustainable pathways for artists to engage in participatory practices within rural settings, and research on this subject is limited.This report discusses the results of a case study which took place as part of the broader Sound Soils research project – a practice-oriented initiative aimed at exploring opportunities, roles and approaches for professional musicians to contribute to rural life in the northern Netherlands. In this case study, we aimed to understand the unique qualities and cultural lives of villages in the North-Netherlands region. To do so, we conducted immersive visits to three villages and spoke to locals about the existing cultural fabric of their village, as well as the current concerns and wishes of their inhabitants, both in general and in relation to music activities.Alongside providing other valuable insights into village life in our region more generally, our findings help identify potential ways for musicians to develop (new) collaborative music practices in rural communities, with a focus on forms that are in dialogue with existing local interests and community life. In this way, we seek approaches that have a higher potential for sustainability by being embedded into existing community structures and cultural practices. In this report, we explain the purpose, methodologies, and main findings of the three villages case study and discuss how these results may lead to follow-up research-in-practice projects in the villages studied and others like them.
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Circular BIOmass CAScade to 100% North Sea Region (NSR) economic activity and growth are mostly found in urban areas. Rural NSR regions experience population decline and negative economic growth. The BIOCAS project expects revitalizing and greening of rural areas go hand in hand. BIOCAS will develop rural areas of the NSR into smart specialized regions for integrated and local valorization of biomass. 13 Commercial running Bio-Cascade-Alliances (BCA’s) will be piloted, evaluated and actively shared in the involved regions. These proven concepts will accelerate adoption of high to low value bio-cascading technologies and businesses in rural regions. The project connects 18 regional initiatives around technologies, processes, businesses for the conversion of biomass streams. The initiatives collaborate in a thematic approach: Through engineering, value chain assessments, BCA’s building, partners tackle challenges that are shared by rural areas. I.e. unsustainable biomass use, a mineral surplus and soil degradation, deprivation of potentially valuable resources, and limited involvement of regional businesses and SMEs in existing bio-economy developments. The 18 partners are strongly embedded in regional settings, connected to many local partners. They will align stakeholders in BCA’s that would not have cooperated without BIOCAS interventions. Triple helix, science, business and governmental input will realize inclusive lasting bio cascade businesses, transforming costly waste to resources and viable business.Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme: €378,520.00, fEC % 50.00%1/07/17 → 30/06/21
Als invulling voor de City Deal Kennis Maken willen de gemeente Leeuwarden en de onderwijsinstellingen (MBO, HBO en WO) in nauwe samenwerking met bedrijfsleven en maatschappelijke instellingen hun krachten bundelen voor het oplossen van relevante vraagstukken. De stad heeft gezien de rurale context in Noord-Nederland een brede definitie, onder het motto “De Stad als campus, de regio als proeftuin”. De uitgangspunten zijn: - Er wordt in eerste instantie gewerkt aan thema’s en uitgangspunten vanuit de Kennisagenda Fryslân die vanuit het Hoger Onderwijs Akkoord Fryslân, naar een innovatieve en lerende regio is opgesteld, - De uitdagingen worden aangepakt vanuit een multi-disciplinaire en multi-level (MBO, HBO en WO) aanpak. - De activiteiten vinden zoveel mogelijk plaats in zogenaamde living labs . - Het Innovatie Pact Fryslân, een samenwerkingsverband tussen het Friese hoger onderwijs, het beroepsonderwijs, het bedrijfsleven, de provincie Fryslân en de F4 gemeenten en Hoger Onderwijs Akkoord Fryslân overleg (zie figuur 2) als strategisch platform inzetten. In algemene zin de activiteiten die in dit kader uitgevoerd gaan worden zijn: 1. Het aanstellen van een kwartiermaker/ kennismakelaar die maatschappelijke vraagstukken in kaart brengt en kan koppelen aan de partners. 2. Als pilot, het inrichten van een aantal living labs op basis van een multi-disciplinaire- en multi-level aanpak. Studenten van meerdere kennisinstellingen en verschillende opleidingen zullen hieraan deelnemen om meerdere invalshoeken te krijgen om de maatschappelijke uitdagingen aan te pakken. Als hoogtepunt zal er een groot inspiratie-event georganiseerd worden (“Fryslân breekt uit”). 3. Het opstellen van een gezamenlijke living lab agenda, waarin gewerkt wordt aan de afstemming en uitvoering van de living labs. NHL Stenden Hogeschool zal als penvoerder optreden en met de gemeente Leeuwarden als consortiumpartners aan te merken. Daarnaast zullen de O3 partners (onderwijs/onderzoek/ondernemers) verenigd binnen het IPF een belangrijke rol krijgen voor afstemming, maar ook in de uitvoer.
Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) are at the centre of European Union Agenda aiming at reducing the plastic soup with the EU Directive 2019/904. SUPs reduction is pivotal also in the Dutch Government Agenda for the transition to a Circular Economy by 2050. Worldwide the data on SUPs use and disposal are impressive: humans use around 1.2 million plastic bottles per minute; approximately 91% of plastic is not recycled (www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-single-use-plastics/). While centralised processes of waste collection, disposal, and recycling strive to cope with such intense use of SUPs, the opportunities and constraints of establishing a networked grid of facilities enacting processes of SUPs collection and recycling with the active involvement of local community has remained unexplored. The hospitality sector is characterised by a widespread capillary network of small hospitality firms nested in neighbourhoods and rural communities. Our research group works with small hospitality firms, different stakeholders, and other research groups to prompt the transition of the hospitality sector towards a Circular Economy embracing not only the environmental and economic dimensions but also the social dimension. Hence, this project explores the knowledge and network needed to build an innovative pilot allowing to close the plastic loop within a hospitality facility by combining a 3D printing process with social inclusiveness. This will mean generating key technical and legal knowledge as well as a network of strategic experts and stakeholders to be involved in an innovative pilot setting a 3D printing process in a hospitality facility and establishing an active involvement of the local community. Such active involvement of the local inhabitants will be explored as SUPs collectors and end-users of upcycled plastics items realised with the 3D printer, as well as through opportunities of vocational training and job opportunities for citizens distant from the job market.
